ICH Tourism dialogues: conversations on Living Heritage and Tourism

ICH Tourism dialogue #2
A dialogue with Kaat De Ridder.

In 2024, the ICH NGO Forum runs a new initiative in the frame of the web dossier on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism: a series of online ICH Tourism dialogues is
organized throughout the year. Through the dialogues, we aim to further enrich and develop the web dossier for its multiple users, and contribute to the ongoing exercise on what to do when ICH and tourism meet.
We started on 18th March 2024 with Halle Butvin from the Smithsonian Folklife Center.

The 2nd Dialogue introduces Kaat De Ridder on 26th April 2024 – 3 pm CEST.

Kaat De Ridder is a heritage tourism researcher and lecturer at Thomas More University of Applied
Sciences in Belgium.
Kaat’s research has been dedicated to ICH Tourism research over the past years. In her research, Kaat delves into the questions of what infuses places with meaning and what drives
individuals to connect with these locales. Kaat navigates critical inquiries, such as the translation of heritage into meaningful and sustainable visitor experiences. She actively engages with a diverse
range of stakeholders, ensuring a holistic and comprehensive approach to her research. Integral to Kaat’s work are key principles such as sustainability, safeguarding, and inclusivity. Her focus on
intangible heritage tourism involves crafting a framework that fosters tourism as a platform for the safeguarding of intangible heritage, while empowering the communities that uphold the practices.
In this ICH Tourism Dialogue #2, Kaat will be sharing insights from her work, includig the recently finalized ICH tourism research project ‘impalpable heritage’, and introduce the just starting Creative
Europe project ‘ICH Journeys’ on the integration of intangible heritage into cultural heritage tourism experiences (2024-2027).

This online event lasts 1 hour, combining a presentation and a space for Q&A and exchange.

Please register via this link.

Interdisciplinary Conversations on Living Heritage and Tourism

Following the new avenues opened up for dialogue and collaborations among diverse stakeholders by the web dossier on Intangible Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Tourism, the ICH NGO Forum Working Group on sustainable ICH Tourism initiates in 2024 a series of conversations looking to expand the scope of our understanding of the relationship between ICH and tourism.

The ICH Tourism Dialogues will bring together scholars and ICH practitioners along with people from NGOs, tourism agencies and the tourism industry representing localities, regions and national governments to talk about the benefits and challenges of this relationship from different perspectives.  

Dialogue about issues of economic development,  tourism studies, cultural resources management, the relationships of historic preservation and the protection of monuments with ICH,  environmental sustainability and perspectives from the social sciences can enrich this discussion.  

The ICH Tourism Dialogues will share the experiences of diverse types of institutions and key actors in the field that have developed successful and sometimes not-so-successful projects for promoting tourism related to cultural traditions and practices.  These conversations aim to further enrich and develop the web dossier for its multiple users, and contribute to the ongoing exercise on what to do when ICH and tourism meet.

For participation, registration is required.